I haven't forgotten my promise -- Luna
Some things have unbreakable sticking power. A Hellkin's loyalty to someone with a kind heart, for example. The Faekindred's general prediliction towards duplicity and double meanings. And, of course, a heartfelt oath that includes the shedding of blood.
The blood of the oathtaker, of course. Anyone's or anything else does not count. That is how the gods know that it's serious.
That's what put the gods onto watching the oathtaker in question. Readying disasters and woe for anyone who breaks their word. Anyone who offends Lamok and Tyr both get everything they deserve.
Valiant Stormwight Hallowfine Whitekeep, fourth of his name, knew this when he approached the Oathstone in the Carved Keep. New to his crown, part of his coronation included swearing the oath in front of his Barons. An oath he found... insufficient. There was one thing missing, and he was bargaining that the gods would ensure it would happen. Or rather... not happen.
Hail Valiant the Mad, the old seer had crowed, sire to the Thrice-Sworn King...
He had to rely on the gods to alter his fate. People were asking questions about how well he was "getting along" with his bride. Meaning they were wondering when the next heir was going to appear. If he wanted his son and heir to not be the devilborn "Kormwind Nine" foretold to "change the line", he had to add it to the traditional oath.
He knew just where to do it, of course.
Valiant asked his friend, the Baron Aargreste Tansie, for his blade, and pierced his heart-finger enough to draw blood. He put his hand to the stone, and used the words embedded in the chalcedony monolith to recite, "I, Valiant Stormwight Hallowfine, trueborn son of Whitekeep, do solemnly swear to the following," he looked to his father, who nodded. "I will help the helpless however I can. I will defend the defenceless and protect the innocent. I will fight for justice to the best of my ability."
Breathe. Stay calm. The Oathstone was purring underneath his hand. Accepting his heartfelt words. "I will tell no untruth to harm another. I will keep my troth in honour and virtue. I will stay true to my addianced and my spouse alike."
Here. This was where he inserted the words he believed in the most. "I will sire no Hellkin heir to the Whitekeep throne." He ignored the stutter of the stone's purr. It was a heartfelt oath and it was his heart feeling it. The gods had to be listening.
Valiant returned to the embedded words of his ancestors. "I will raise any children of heart or body in strength and health..."
The Carved Keep rang like a bell when he finished with the words, "From now until my death, and beyond."
The puncture on his finger was gone. So, too, was the blood he had put onto the surface of the flat, smooth chalcedony. It took a sharp eye to spot fresh red crawling into the words embedded in the stone.
It took a sharper eye to spot the tiny droplet on the Keep's diorite floor. The small amount of blood that came from him while he inserted the words most important to him into his oath. Valiant's eyes were not that sharp.
Valiant breathed easily for the first time in five years, when he had sworn the traditional oath to his bride. He'd had to wed her, but only now was he free to bed her. The gods had heard him.
He still waited a week and a half, just to spite the people questioning him about his private life.
After all that fuss and bother, it still took him half a year to put a whelp in her belly.
He did everything right. He did everything he was supposed to do. He kept every word on the Oathstone. He trusted the gods to enforce the oath.
And that woman put a Hellkin into her birthing bed.
Kormwind Arachis Felbourne Whitekeep. Ninth of the name.
Kormwind Nine changes the line...
He'd sworn it heartfelt, and yet...
His oaths didn't mean shit.
There was no need to maintain a single word of them, no matter how often they berated him in his head. The gods hadn't done a single thing and they didn't need to, either.
His doom was already there, in the arms of his woman.
The Thrice-Sworn King was Valiant's firstborn son and heir, and he couldn't do anything lest the family curse doom his entire realm. If he harmed the Hellkin heir, then he and the rest of his Earldom would perish.
Was it worth it to save the world?
Could he face the gods knowing he had murdered his entire Earldom just to save the world from the Thrice-Sworn King?
Or was this something the gods wanted to happen?
Valiant hated them all. Especially his oath.
It prevented him from doing so much. And if he violated it too much... that damned chair would judge him unworthy to rule. And then he'd be completely powerless.
Damn the oath. Damn the gods. And especially damn his newborn son and the bitch who birthed it.
May they all rot.
[Photo by Daniel von Appen on Unsplash]
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